The same summer during which these decrees were passed at Rome, and these transactions took place in Africa, Publius Quinctilius Varus, the praetor, and Marcus Cornelius, the proconsul, fought a pitched battle with Mago the Carthaginian in the territories of the Insubrian Gauls. The legions of the praetor were in the first line; Cornelius kept his in reserve, riding forward into the front himself, and the praetor and proconsul, leading on the two wings, exhorted the soldiers to attack the enemy with the utmost vigour. Finding they produced no impression upon the enemy, Quinctilius said to Cornelius: "The battle, as you perceive, does not proceed with spirit, the enemy, having succeeded in their resistance beyond expectation, have become callous to fear, and there is danger lest it should be converted into boldness. We must stir up a tempest of cavalry if we wish to disorder and drive them from their ground; therefore, either do you sustain the fight in front, and I will lead the cavalry into the action; or else, I will act in the front line and you send out the cavalry of the four legions against the enemy." The proconsul offering to take whichever part of the service the praetor pleased, Quinctilius the praetor, with his son, surnamed Marcus, a spirited youth, went off to the cavalry, and desiring them to mount, instantly led them to the charge. The confusion on occasioned by these was increased by a shout raised by the legions; nor would the line of the enemy have stood unbroken, had not Mago, as soon as he saw the cavalry in motion, immediately brought into the action his elephants, which he kept in readiness. The horses were so terrified at the snorting, the smell, and appearance of these animals, that the aid of the cavalry was rendered ineffectual. As the Roman horseman had the advantage in point of efficiency in a close fight, when he could use his javelin and sword hand to hand, so the Numidians had the advantage when throwing their darts from a distance upon enemies borne away from them by their terrified horses. At the same time the twelfth legion, though a great number of them were slain, maintained their ground through shame rather than a reliance on their strength; but they would not have continued to do so longer, had not the thirteenth legion, brought up into the front line from the reserve, taken up the doubtful conflict. Mago, also, bringing up the Gauls from his reserve, opposed them to the fresh legion. The Gauls being routed without any great effort, the spearmen of the eleventh legion formed themselves into a circular body and charged the elephants, which were now disordering the line of infantry; and as scarcely one of the javelins which they threw upon them failed of taking effect, as they were close together, they turned them all upon the line of their own party. Four of them fell overpowered with wounds. It was then that the front line of the enemy gave ground, the whole body of the Roman infantry at the same time rushing forward to increase the panic and confusion, on seeing the elephants turn their backs. As long as Mago stood in front, the troops stepped back slowly, preserving their ranks and not relaxing their ardour in fighting; but when they saw him falling, from a wound in his thigh, which was transfixed, and carried off the field almost lifeless, in an instant they all betook themselves to flight. As many as five thousand of the enemy were slain, and twenty-two military standards captured on that day. Nor did the Romans obtain a bloodless victory. Two thousand three hundred of the army of the praetor, by far the greater part of whom belonged to the twelfth legion, were lost. Two military tribunes, Marcus Cosconius and Marcus Maenius, of the same legion; and of the thirteenth legion also, which joined in the action at its close, Cneius Helvius, a military tribune, fell in restoring the fight; and about twenty-two distinguished horsemen, together with several centurions, were trampled upon and killed by the elephants. The contest would have continued longer, had not the enemy conceded the victory, in consequence of the wound of their general.
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Mago, setting out during the silence of the succeeding night, and marching as far at a time as his wounds would allow him, reached the sea-coast in the territory of the Ingaunian Ligurians. Here ambassadors from Carthage, who had put into the Gallic bay a few days before, came to him with directions to cross over into Africa with all speed; informing him that his brother Hannibal, for to him also they said ambassadors had gone with similar directions, would do the same, for the affairs of the Carthaginians were not in a condition to admit of their occupying Gaul and Italy with armies. Mago, not only influenced by the command of the senate and the danger which threatened his country, but fearful also lest the victorious enemy should be upon him if he delayed, and lest the Ligurians themselves, seeing that the Carthaginians were leaving Italy, should pass over to those under whose power they were likely soon to be placed; at the same time hoping that his wound would be less irritated by the motion of sailing than marching, and that he would have greater facilities for the cure of it, put his troops on board and set sail. But he had scarcely cleared Sardinia when he died of his wound. Several also of his ships, which had been dispersed in the main sea, were captured by the Roman fleet which lay near Sardinia. Such were the transactions by sea and land in that part of Italy which is adjacent to the Alps. The consul, Caius Servilius, without having performed any memorable achievement in Etruria, his province, and in Gaul, for he had advanced thither also, but having rescued from slavery, which they had endured for now the sixteenth year, his father, Caius Servilius, and his uncle, Caius Lutatius, who had been taken by the Boians at the village of Tanetum, returned to Rome with his father on one side of him and his uncle on the other, distinguished, by family, rather than by public, honours. It was proposed to the people, that Caius Servilius should be indemnified for having filled the offices of plebeian tribune and plebeian aedile contrary to what was established by the laws, while his father, who had sat in the curule chair, was still alive, he being ignorant of that circumstance. This proposition having been carried, he returned to his province. The towns Consentia, Uffugum, Vergae, Besidiae, Hetriculum, Sypheum, Argentanum, Clampetia, and many other inconsiderable states, perceiving that the Carthaginian cause was declining, went over to Cneius Servilius the consul in Bruttium. The same consul fought a battle with Hannibal, in the territory of Croto. The accounts of this battle are not clear. Valerius Antias states that five thousand men were slain. But this is an event of such magnitude, that either it must be an impudent fiction, or negligently omitted. It is certain that nothing further was done by Hannibal in Italy; for ambassadors from Carthage, recalling him into Africa, came to him, as it happened, at the same time that they came to Mago.
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It is said that when Hannibal heard the message of the ambassadors he gnashed with his teeth, groaned, and scarcely refrained from shedding tears. After they had delivered the commands with which they were charged, he said: "Those who have for a long time been endeavouring to drag me home, by forbidding the sending of supplies and money to me, now recall me, not indirectly, but openly. Hannibal, therefore, hath been conquered, not by the Roman people, who have been so often slain and routed, but by the Carthaginian senate, through envy and detraction; nor will Publius Scipio exult and glory in this unseemly return so much as Hanno, who has crushed our family, since he could not effect it by any other means, by the ruins of Carthage." Already had his mind entertained a presentiment of this event, and he had accordingly prepared ships beforehand. Having, therefore, sent a crowd of useless soldiers under pretence of garrisons into the towns in the Bruttian territory, a few of which continued their adherence to him, more through fear than attachment, he transported the strength of his army into Africa. Many natives of Italy who, refusing to follow him into Africa had retired to the shrine of Juno Lacinia, which had never been violated up to that day, were barbarously massacred in the very temple. It is related, that rarely any person leaving his country to go into exile exhibited deeper sorrow than Hannibal did on departing from the land of his enemies; that he frequently looked back upon the shores of Italy, and, arraigning both gods and men, cursed himself and his own head that he did not lead his troops, while reeking with blood from the victory at Cannae, to Rome. Scipio, who since his appointment to the office of consul had not looked at the Carthaginian enemy in Italy, had dared, he said, to go and attack Carthage, while he, after slaying a hundred thousand fighting men at Trasimenus and Cannae, had suffered his strength to wear away around Casilinum, Cumae, and Nola. Amid these reproaches and complaints he was borne away from his long occupation of Italy.
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